Title: The Eternal Darkness: A Personal History of Deep-Sea Exploration Purchase Item Manufacturer: Princeton University Press List Price: $24.95 Our Price: $10.95
Customer Reviews:
The Eternal Darkness: A Personal History of Deep-Sea Exploration by Princeton University Press Great Overview
This is a great overview of deep-diving submersibles. It does a great job of developing the history of the submersible and its major contributions to science and the military. It also lays out the grounds for how Ballard sees the future of this technology. I enjoyed the descriptions of the discoveries of the Mid-Ocean Ridge and black smokers. I wish that he would have described the Titanic discovery in more detail. Sometimes I felt that he dumbed down some of the science to reach a younger crowd, but he still did an amazing job of leaving me wanting to know more about the deep ocean and what remains to be discovered.
The Eternal Darkness: A Personal History of Deep-Sea Exploration by Princeton University Press Great book...
very interesting. Heard him speak at a conference and it was pretty much the verbal presentation of the book. A fascinating person and this book gives a great history of deep sea explorers...
The Eternal Darkness: A Personal History of Deep-Sea Exploration by Princeton University Press Personal history aside, a pretty good book
Dr. Ballard gives his account of discovering the wreck of the "Titanic," but he also fails to give credit where credit is due to many deepsea pioneers who made his work possible. I would've been happier with the book if there were less 'personal history' and more 'deepsea exploration.'
The Eternal Darkness: A Personal History of Deep-Sea Exploration by Princeton University Press It's Science for the People.
I had the privilege of listening to Dr. Ballard speak on some of his explorations. It was quite an honor because I remember when his team discovered the Titanic in 1985 and because of that discovery I have tried to keep up at least a popular know-how about science and technology. THE ETERNAL DARKNESS discusses some of the things Dr. Ballard spoke about when I heard him and some of the things I remember reading about when I was a kid. The book is basically a very brief history of deep-sea exploration that is divided into three parts. The first part deals with exploration up until the time of the submersible. There really isn't much about ancient exploration techniques because until the beginning of the 20th century, humankind really wasn't doing any deep-sea exploring. The book talks a lot about bathyscaphs and bathyspheres, things that I only vaguely remember from old Walt Disney cartoons. The second part of the book explores the discoveries made using submersibles. Ballard began his career near the beginning of the end of this age and it is in this section that he begins discussing many of his own personal voyages and discoveries, including those in the mountain ranges of the oceans. The third part of the book talks about the events in deep-sea exploring from about the early 1980s on with robotic vehicles doing most of the really deep work. In this part of the book, Ballard discusses other discoveries he was involved with including the Titanic. Personally, I found the book quite interesting. Ballard does seem to take a lot of credit for various discoveries and events, but he was actually there for the discoveries of those things or at least was a member of the team. This book probably isn't something that an expert in science would want to read (too easy), but it's great for the average Joe. If only all science books were as easy to read as this one.
The Eternal Darkness: A Personal History of Deep-Sea Exploration by Princeton University Press Balancing the reviews: Another exceptional volume by Ballard
The earlier reviews of The Eternal Darkness show the benefit of Amazon's review system. I get nothing for polishing Amazon's apple, but this company has transformed book selling in much the same way that Ballard took existing knowledge, technology, and organizational leadership and enthusiasm and converted them into historic discoveries on the ocean floor. As one with longtime personal acquaintance with Ballard's oceanographic work, I advise readers not to place credence in one carping, jealous critic. On the other hand, without Amazon's review system how else could one ever learn of the nuanced, knowledgeable critique of "Time Walker"? One noteworthy point is that beside his spectacular images and technical breakthroughs, Ballard is ever on the alert to new ideas and concepts. For example, he realized and has popularized the amazing resource that the Black Sea - which has no oxygen through most of its 2000 m depth - offers for finding new insights into ancient cultures. In this environment teredo worms and ordinary bacteria that destroy virtually all wood and metal are absent. The anaerobic bacteria that remain operate exceedingly slowly - offering the chance that even leather and sometimes paper might remain recoverable when wrecks are buried in mud. Because of the popularity of Ballard's work he has enjoyed support of powerful organizations, from the U.S. Navy to National Geographic. He uses these resources not to enrich himself as many others might do, but primarily to advance further explorations whose costs might otherwise be prohibitive. So enjoy the visual and the action in Ballard's book, and keep the mind open for the talk, and appreciate one of the large spirits of 20th Century and 21st Century science and exploration.
The Eternal Darkness: A Personal History of Deep-Sea Exploration by Princeton University Press Product Description
Until a few decades ago, the ocean depths were almost as mysterious and inaccessible as outer space. Oceans cover two-thirds of the earth's surface with an average depth of more than two miles--yet humans had never ventured more than a few hundred feet below the waves. One of the great scientific and archaeological feats of our time has been finally to cast light on the "eternal darkness" of the deep sea. This is the story of that achievement, told by the man who has done more than any other to make it possible: Robert Ballard. Ballard discovered the wreck of the Titanic. He led the teams that discovered hydrothermal vents and "black smokers"--cracks in the ocean floor where springs of superheated water support some of the strangest life-forms on the planet. He was a diver on the team that explored the mid-Atlantic ridge for the first time, confirming the theory of plate tectonics. Today, using a nuclear submarine from the U.S. Navy, he's exploring the ancient trade routes of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea for the remains of historic vessels and their cargo. In this book, he combines science, history, spectacular illustrations, and first-hand stories from his own expeditions in a uniquely personal account of how twentieth-century explorers have pushed back the frontiers of technology to take us into the midst of a world we could once only guess at. Ballard begins in 1930 with William Beebe and Otis Barton, pioneers of the ocean depths who made the world's first deep-sea dives in a cramped steel sphere. He introduces us to Auguste and Jacques Piccard, whose "Bathyscaph"descended in 1960 to the lowest point on the ocean floor. He reviews the celebrated advances made by Jacques Cousteau. He describes his own major discoveries--from sea-floor spreading to black smokers--as well as his technical breakthroughs, including the development of remote-operated underwater vehicles and the revolutionary search techniques that led to the discovery and exploration of the Titanic, the Nazi battleship Bismarck, ancient trading vessels, and other great ships. Readers will come away with a richer understanding of history, earth science, biology, and marine technology--and a new appreciation for the remarkable men and women who have explored some of the most remote and fascinating places on the planet.
The Eternal Darkness: A Personal History of Deep-Sea Exploration by Princeton University Press Amazon.com Review
As a young man, at a time when most of his peers were turning their eyes to deep space, Robert Ballard came under the spell both of scientific inquiry and of the ocean. After taking a doctorate in marine geology and geophysics, he spent three decades at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, through which he participated in more than a hundred deep-sea expeditions. Writing from the point of view of "a privileged witness to a fascinating burst of exploration," Ballard recounts many of those explorations, including the first up-close studies of the great mid-ocean ridge of volcanic mountains that circles the globe, full of seafloor vents and "black smokers." Along the way Ballard provides a brief history of modern oceanography, looking at the contributions of such scientists as Charles William Beebe and Otis Barton, whose legendary dives in the early 1930s paved the way for much subsequent research. Ballard's narrative takes on particular vigor when he describes, in fascinating detail, his team's search for the wreckage of the Titanic--a search that relied on intelligent guesswork as much as on hard evidence. The methods he and his colleagues used--employing, among other things, sophisticated remote-control craft--to find the unfortunate vessel ushered in a new era of deep-ocean research, a contribution in which Ballard takes justified pride. --Gregory McNamee